Flor del paraíso

Strelitzia reginae

In 1773 Joseph Banks, important naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage across the Pacific, received specimens of this tropical plant in London, when he was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In those years King George III reigned, married to a Duchess of German origin and amateur botanist, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, in whose honor is named this magnificent plant named strelitzia.
The striking orange and blue flowering, which resembles a colorful bird, fantastic, seen in side view, makes it also be known as bird of paradise or 'flower crane' as popularly known in their place of origin, South Africa, where is the official emblem of the former province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Interestingly, the relationship of this plant with birds goes beyond the formal analogy, since it has evolved, to be pollinated and disseminated by bees and also suimangas, the African sun-birds, which, of small size and long spikes are similar to American hummingbirds, and suck the nectar of its flowers.